Thursday Nov 28, 2013, New Delhi: Bharatiya Mahila Bank, the first all-woman bank, plans to open 16 more branches in the next four months. “We plan to add another 16 branches to our network in the next four months,” Mahila Bank Chairperson and Managing Director Usha Ananthasubramanian told PTI.

Two branches would be inauguarted as early as first week of next month. These are Delhi and Indore branches, she added. New branches would be coming up in state capitals and Union territories. The bank intends to fulfil its obligation of meeting 25 per cent of its branches in rural and unbanked areas from the next fiscal. Earlier this month, the bank, a pioneering initiative to empower women, was launched with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore to function as a universal bank. Coinciding with the 96th birthday of late Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the first of its seven branches in the presence of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on November 19 in Mumbai.

The idea of an exclusive lender for women was mooted at the Jaipur Congress plenary last year. Mahila Bank with staff strength of 100 at the moment has drawn on a majority of cadre from state-run lenders. Besides, it has recruited 110 freshers in officer cadre. In another first, the BMB has an all-woman, eight-member board. The board consists of a business graduate sarpanch from Rajasthan, Chhavi Rajawat, Dalit entrepreneur Kalpana Saroj, who turned around a tubes business, retired public banker Nupur Mitra, academic Pakiza Samad, private equity professional Renuka Ramnath, Godrej Group executive Director Tania Dubash and Priya Kumar, a government nominee.